Wednesday, November 14, 2001
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, Vol. I
edited by Ivan Morris
This wasn't quite what I expected. You see, what happened was that my wife has been reading up on Chinese culture. One of the books she's read mentioned certain, ah, positions that were supposedly well known in the older Chinese culture. So well known, that they weren't listed out or described, but only casually mentioned by name. Of course, lacking descriptions, names like "The Lotus" or "Shaking the Horse's Hoof" tend to pique one's curiosity. Anyway, I've done a few limited searches on the Internet with no success. It seems the Kama Sutra is the only ancient sex manual out there. Anyway, my wife had heard that erotic tomes in China were called "pillow books" so when I did a search at the library, I found this volume. Well, a thousand years ago in Japan, pillow books were volumes one kept by the pillow and wrote in at the end of the day. Pretty much like a diary. And this book is a translation of a thousand year old Japanese pillow book. But even if the lover in me was disappointed, the historian was delighted. Sei Shonagon was a lady in waiting at the Imperial Court and her pillow book is full of anecdotes and observations of her life. The lady herself was rather haughty for my tastes, but it was fascinating to see her life through her eyes. I would heartily recommend that you check it out, even if it won't lead to any hoof shaking.
(P.S. I also managed to peruse Vol II after I wrote this, but it didn't rate a separate review. Try to find the edition that's in a single volume if you want to read this one.)
LibraryThing link
This wasn't quite what I expected. You see, what happened was that my wife has been reading up on Chinese culture. One of the books she's read mentioned certain, ah, positions that were supposedly well known in the older Chinese culture. So well known, that they weren't listed out or described, but only casually mentioned by name. Of course, lacking descriptions, names like "The Lotus" or "Shaking the Horse's Hoof" tend to pique one's curiosity. Anyway, I've done a few limited searches on the Internet with no success. It seems the Kama Sutra is the only ancient sex manual out there. Anyway, my wife had heard that erotic tomes in China were called "pillow books" so when I did a search at the library, I found this volume. Well, a thousand years ago in Japan, pillow books were volumes one kept by the pillow and wrote in at the end of the day. Pretty much like a diary. And this book is a translation of a thousand year old Japanese pillow book. But even if the lover in me was disappointed, the historian was delighted. Sei Shonagon was a lady in waiting at the Imperial Court and her pillow book is full of anecdotes and observations of her life. The lady herself was rather haughty for my tastes, but it was fascinating to see her life through her eyes. I would heartily recommend that you check it out, even if it won't lead to any hoof shaking.
(P.S. I also managed to peruse Vol II after I wrote this, but it didn't rate a separate review. Try to find the edition that's in a single volume if you want to read this one.)
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut
// posted by John @ 5:02 PM 
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